We don’t have a target for closures, says Barclays... Oh yes you do, say villagers as 20 branches are quietly culled

Barclays says: ‘There is no target for bank closures.’ It is a claim the bank is making while embarking on a quiet cull of branches up and down the country.

The high street giant denies there is a closure strategy and angrily dismisses rumours that a quarter of its network of 1,600 branches is earmarked for the chop.

Yet despite these denials, Barclays has already shut about 20 branches this year without fanfare after the quiet closure of 33 last year.

Vital: Bruce Waldron says the closure, revealed on the door of Sawston's branch, will hit the vulnerable hardest

Villagers in the 8,000-strong community of Sawston, Cambridgeshire, are not placated by denials.

They prefer to believe their own eyes. Their own Barclays branch – the last bank in the community – has a notice on the door saying it will close on Friday June 13. An unlucky day even for those not superstitious.

Bruce Waldron, 62, minister of Sawston Free Church a few doors down, says: ‘The bank offers a vital community service. We have made it wealthy with our custom. In return its masters are acting unkindly to us. It is the most vulnerable – those with mobility or health issues or without a car – who will feel the impact of closure the most.’

The minister has been among those involved in compiling a 2,000-name petition to Barclays pleading with it to reconsider. The requests for talks have been ignored.

Sharon Bouttell, 59, who owns The Brickhouse Coffee Shop opposite the bank, has been a loyal Barclays customer for many years, but she will now close her account when it abandons the community.

Loyal: Sharon Bouttell, who runs a cafe opposite the branch, is a customer

Sharon says: ‘I have received no notification about the closure. Nothing, not even a letter to explain what is happening. The first I heard about it was when a notice went up a few weeks ago in the bank window. The cold, arrogant way it treats its customers is in contrast to the generous bonuses it has paid its bosses.’

The window has a sign explaining the closure with a ‘we look forward to welcoming you at our nearest branch… Great Shelford’.

This is three miles up the road, but does not have the convenience of easy parking and those without a car will have to pay £3 to catch a bus there. Local cleaner Sophie Lilley, 36, says: ‘I’ll have to get out the bike as I don’t have a car and it seems a waste of money to take a bus.’

This month, the bank admitted it was cutting its global workforce by 19,000 over three years – with more than 7,000 job cuts in Britain. Though most of those are in investment banking, the retail bank will also feel the cost-cutting squeeze.

Despite this the number of Barclays staff paid more than £1million rose to 481 last year from 428 in 2012. Much of the money came from a bonus pool that rose ten per cent to £2.4 billion – despite a 32 per cent fall in pre-tax profits last year. A third of shareholders withheld support for the bonus bonanza at Barclays’ annual meeting last month.

Derek French, founder of the Campaign for Community Banking Services, says: ‘About 20 Barclays branches have already gone this year and more will surely follow.

‘There are fears that a quarter of its network – 400 branches – could close in the next five years. As with other banks closing branches it is being driven by the need to shore up short-term profits and it shows a lack of any social conscience.’

French says more than 8,000 bank branches have closed since 1990, almost halving the network from 17,600 to 9,500.

A dwindling presence on the High Street

Barclays shut 171 branches in one day in 2000. There are fears as many as 400 of the remaining 1,577 could close, but Barclays says it has no target for how many branches will eventually close.

HSBC has closed more branches than any other bank, with more than 400 being axed over the past decade. Fewer than 1,150 survive.

Lloyds TSB has shut almost 300 branches since 2003. There are now 1,300 Lloyds branches, all in England and Wales, and 630 TSB outlets, 185 in Scotland. Bank of Scotland, part of Lloyds, has 300 branches.

NatWest has culled at least 200 branches in the past decade – about 1,400 survive. RBS, its owner, has said 44 more will close, of which 14 are the last branch in town. There are 300 RBS branches in Scotland.

He says that instead of leaving places such as Sawston without a bank, Barclays should share its facilities with other leading banks. Branch sharing is commonplace in the US and has proved successful.

A Barclays spokeswoman says: ‘This year there have been routine branch closures. We will provide an updated figure in our half-year results in July. There is not a target for the number to be closed.

‘There will be fewer traditional branches as we move to provide banking services to customers where and when they find it most convenient. However, the branch network will remain an important part of banking services and we will never leave a community without the ability to transact.’

Barclays is not the only villain when it comes to closing branches this year. NatWest, part of taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland, is also quietly chipping away at its network as the Hampshire community of Fair Oak is finding to its cost.

Like those protesting against the Barclays closure in Sawston, Cambridgeshire, the residents and shopkeepers of Fair Oak are refusing to let NatWest close its part-time branch without a fight. The branch shuts in July and then Fair Oak will be bankless.

Campaigners: Ros and Jason Judd

A 1,100-name petition has been compiled, local Liberal Democrat MP Mike Thornton has criticised the closure and meetings have been held with RBS bosses in Southampton nearby. Leading the fight are Jason and Ros Judd, who own the Oven Door Bakery and who bank with NatWest.

‘As a bank it claims to put the needs of customers first,’ says Ros, 48, ‘but it isn’t prepared to take any of our concerns on board. It is ignoring the fact we have a high population of elderly people, many uncomfortable with online banking.

‘It fails to acknowledge that a number of local businesses pay in takings whenever the bank is open on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They’ll now have to go to the nearest NatWest branch in Eastleigh, five miles away.’

Ros adds: ‘For a long time we were told the branch would not shut as it was the last in the community.

It was a promise we trusted just as we promised to repay our loan when we took on the bakery ten years ago. We kept ours. Sadly, NatWest is breaking its promise.’

NatWest says the branch is closing due to a decline in usage, but Ros says: ‘Our bakery is next door.